Fast facts:
Expect a mix of material from Richie's 30-year career, including memorable numbers from his early days with The commodores to his big 80s ballads and up tempo pop material from the last decade.

Here's Abbie's review:

Out of five? Four stars

Eighties soul legend Lionel Richie was welcomed to Cardiff with a huge roar from a sell-out crowd at the city’s Motorpoint Arena.

Appearing on a raised platform at the back of the stage, he treated fans to a night of greatest hits, chatting easily between numbers and clearly enjoying himself.

The singer, who made a name for himself with the Commodores before rocketing to solo superstar status, has shaped pop culture and made himself part of his fans’ lives by providing a soundtrack to defining moments.

Songs like Endless Love, Say You, Say Me and Hello have marked milestones for two generations and his fans knew it, singing along to every word.

A grand piano appeared for ballads and slow numbers, vanishing through the floor when Richie and his band wanted to up the tempo with numbers like Dancing On The Ceiling which had people dancing in the aisles.

As a pop giant Richie is a showman as well as a great singer and the lighting and effects were as smooth as the soul that shapes his music.

Trends come and go but there is always a place for anthems to life and Richie, who started life as a support act for The Jackson Five in the sixties, has provided these in abundance.

The Tuskagee tour, named for his birthplace, reveals the Country and Western influences Richie has always woven into his ballads.

Music trends come and go and though these ballads may not always have been at the cutting edge for some, his depth and power as an artist has ensured his status never waned and rightly so.

Richie is a singer and performer of substance who borrows from various genres.

And last night’s performance had echoes of funk, country, soul, R ’n’ B, pop and even a snatch of Dave Lee Roth’s Jump.

As an artist who has sold more than 100 million albums, has five Grammys and an Oscar for Best Original Score, Richie doesn’t need to pull stunts to share his talent.

Comfortable with his sound and clearly enjoying himself, Richie made this a great night for all.

Fast facts:
The London-based indie guitar merchants promote their new album Come of Age. Released in September it follows their debut album What Did You Expect from The Vaccines?, released the previous year. It was produced by Ethan Johns and reached number one in the UK.

Here's Paul's review:

Out of 5? 4 stars

Say what you like about The Vaccines, but they definitely know how to get a crowd going. Their detractors may call them limited, derivative, and shackled to the same three chords, but when you can make the audience seem like they’re hooked up to a generator within your opening song, who cares?

Two albums in, and the London outfit already have enough crowd pleasers up their sleeves to last a career. Starting off with new LP opener No Hope, and moving effortless into Wreckin’ Bar and Blow It Up, the band topped their louche garage rock with polished panache from the off.

An hour-long set flew by with the relentless pace barely faltering, peppered liberally with crowd-pleasing tracks like If You Wanna, Post Break-Up Sex and the mighty Teenage Icon.

First album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines was plundered heavily, with a number of less upbeat efforts from follow-up Come Of Age left off the playlist.

But the show was all the better for it.

An encore of new track Bad Mood, the rollicking Wolf Pack and Norgaard completing proceedings before a fully hyped-up crowd.

As we left, a friend said he’d not seen Cardiff’s students’ union jumping like that for years. High praise indeed.

Tickets?
A few still available, priced £15 to £20. Call 029 2089 0862 or CLICK HERE

Capacity?
Around 180

Fast facts:
The former harpist to the Prince of Wales will be joining forces with Sinfonia Cymru to perform instrumentals from her new album Blessing, which was recorded with eminent composer John Rutter.

Here's Peter's review:

Out of 5? 5 stars

FORMER Royal Harpist Catrin Finch was on home turf in the intimate setting of the Acapela Studio on Friday to celebrate the launch of a new CD, in collaboration with composer John Rutter and the players of Sinfonia Cymru.

The strings warmed up the crowd with a charming suite by Rutter, but the arrival on stage of a brightly-dressed Finch signalled the start of the night. An impressive rendition of Walter-Kune’s Fantasie on Eugene Onegin seemed thematically out of place, but it’s hard to care about such things when faced with such virtuosity.

More Russian music was forthcoming (slightly allaying my thematic concerns), and Glinka’s The Lark was a welcome and very lyric breath of air before diving headfirst into Finch’s own new Celtic Concerto.

And what magic it was. Dispensing with the superfluities of contemporary avant-garde or autonomous experimentalism, Finch seemed concerned only with writing music that would move.

In this shimmering piece she treats the orchestra like a second harp to achieve a marvellous synthesis of soloist and accompanist.

The piece, and performance, was sonorous and humorous, radiant and intricate, and was upset only by a charming gentleman voicing a concern to get to the bar. The rest of us weren’t so ready to leave.

A second half was opened with rather an uninspiring Rutter arrangement for strings, but it worked well in context and was played with vivacity. In a nice piece of symmetry, Finch went on to punctuate the half with two solos: the first a Mosquito Massacre by Paul Patterson, during which Finch must be credited as much with keeping a straight face as with brilliant playing; followed by two beautifully played arrangements of Welsh folk tunes by John Thomas.

Rutter’s Suite Lyrique for harp and strings was the commission which set the whole project in motion, and was a fitting finale to this celebratory concert.

Composed of six movements, none much longer than three minutes, and covering a broad range of musical genres (including an aria, a waltz and a rondeau), the piece was easy-listening in its most laudable form.

Eclectic but well-balanced, it had a certain cinematic bent, and was completely charming (not to mention brilliantly played by all concerned). I bought the CD!

Fast facts:
After walking the wall in the West Bank, becoming Guinness World Record holder for political protests and chasing arms dealers around the country, Mark Thomas turns his attention to matters closer to home with a show about his father. First commissioned by the Royal Opera House, Bravo Figaro is the true tale of a self-employed builder’s love of opera, degenerative illness and how to put opera on in a bungalow in Bournemouth.

Here's Dave's review
:

Out of 5? 5 stars

MARK Thomas appeared very much at home at the Sherman – especially as the venue was acting as a polling station for the Police Crime and Commissioner elections.

Although it wouldn’t have been a Thomas show if this scabrous slayer of political pomposity didn’t poke a little fun at the fact that polling staff had informed him just 39 people had voted.

“I asked them to give me a go, I’d do a few for them,” piped up the comic and activist, much to the amusement of an audience similarly disillusioned with the whole affair.

In Cardiff for the second of two dates, with his show Bravo Figaro, what we got was a game of two halves.

The first Thomas dubbed the warm-up – conventional stand-up with the comic as we know him – incredulous, unabridged and in hilariously curmudgeonly mood. Particularly inventive was his promotion of the concept of book heckling – leaving disparaging notes within books and similarly baffling stickers on their covers; such as “author signed copy” on the front of the Bible.

However, a figure loomed large in the second half – literally.

The central subject of the show dominated on a big screen at the back of the stage – Thomas’ father Colin.

Bravo Figaro, which won a clutch of awards at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, is the true tale of the comic’s dad, a builder with a passion for opera, his degenerative illness – progressive supranuclear palsy, and the comedian’s staging of an opera in his parents’ bungalow in Bournemouth.

As the story unwound there was tenderness, beauty and brutality in equal measure.

It was poignant, powerful, occasionally heartbreaking and confronted the uncomfortable – namely having to say goodbye.

If you're going to any of the gigs why not tweet a short review @walesonline using #WOreviewRichie #WOreviewVaccines #WOreviewcatrinfinch or #WOreviewMarkThomas or post your review in the comments box below

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FORMER Royal Harpist Catrin Finch was on home turf in the intimate setting of the Acapela Studio on Friday to celebrate the launch of a new CD, in collaboration with composer John Rutter and the players of Sinfonia Cymru.

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